“We were telling each other how thankful we are at Thanksgiving,” Watt said. “You know, it was a heat-of-the-moment thing. … He was right. I didn’t play it the way I was supposed to.”

Said Kollar: “(Stuff) like that happens all the time. We get like that in practice, too. I would do it earlier next week.”

He might do it earlier next time because after the exchange, Watt went from having a good game to having the kind of game he’s had many times before this season: monstrous.

Just a few plays later, Watt notched his second sack on a third down, knocking the Lions out of field-goal range.

On the next series, Watt did it again, sacking Lions quarterback Matt Stafford on third down and pushing the Lions out of field-goal range.

Watt finished the game with five tackles, four for loss and three of them sacks. He also had five quarterback hurries and two passes defensed.

This season, Watt has 14.5 sacks and 13 passes defensed.

“As far as how I played after that, we needed to make some plays, and I was doing everything I could to make as many as I could,” Watt said.

With three sacks against the Lions, Watt became the Texans’ all-time leader in single-season sacks. His 14.5 sacks this season topped Mario Williams, who had 14 in 2007.

“It’s an honor,” Watt said. “It’s an honor and a privilege. Hopefully, I can keep breaking it and breaking it and breaking it and breaking it. I’m not done.”

Watt trails San Francisco’s Aldon Smith for the NFL lead by half a sack. Smith had 51/2 sacks Monday night against the Chicago Bears. Denver’s Von Miller is third with 13 and had three sacks last weekend against the San Diego Chargers.

On the first play of the Texans’ first Thanksgiving game, Watt sacked Stafford for a loss of 7 yards. But the Texans’ pass-rush stalled after that as the Lions began driving.

At halftime, Stafford had 246 yards and two touchdowns with a passer rating of 112.

Then Watt became more active. He tipped a pass in the third quarter, which was his 12th tipped pass of the year.

Then in overtime, he batted one down close to the line of scrimmage.

“Really came up big when we needed him,” Kollar said. “Really sort of surprised he didn’t intercept that last batted pass he had because you know how he can catch those passes. But he did an outstanding job. Had a heck of a game.”